Users of the Internet and mobile telecommunication systems retain contact information across a broad range of contact management systems provided by online sites such as networking sites, contact aggregators, address book providers, e-mail providers, and calendar systems. The content of the contact information retained at these sites often includes or is directly related to e-mail, meeting schedules, calendar event notifications, and telephone call transcriptions, blogs, and postings. Of course these networking sites collectively include listings of all the contacts related by this content.
It is often important for a user to recall exactly how and when the user met a particular contact for which information is retained on one of the above referenced online sites. Recollection of such information can be very useful to a user at later date, especially when the particular contact is a part of the user's professional network or a potential sales contact of the user. Additionally, it may be to the user's advantage to keep track of a third party that introduced the user to a contact. A user may benefit from being able to identify third parties who frequently introduce the user to new contacts because those third parties are likely to provide additional contacts that may allow a user to expand their professional or sales networks.
Users wishing to record information about how and when the user met a contact are left with limited options for the traditional online sites referenced above. If the online site provides a general notes field, the user may record the explanation of how a user met the contact in that field. However, the organization and difficulty in relocating this information can make the process inefficient. Further, users often do not add sufficient detail to such notes and the information may then be rendered useless to the user because the information is not complete enough to jog the user's memory concerning the actual circumstances around the initial meeting of the contact. Moreover, users frequently do not record this information immediately after the new contact has been added and the information concerning how and when the user met the contact is often forgotten.